VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict told a gathering of scientists including the British cosmologist Stephen Hawking on Friday that there was no contradiction between believing in God and empirical science.

Benedict, who briefly met the wheelchair-bound physicist at an event hosted by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, described science as the pursuit of knowledge about God’s creation.

“There is no opposition between faith’s understanding of creation and the evidence of the empirical sciences,” the pontiff said. …

Hawking is a guest at the week-long event, which will explore the theme: “Scientific Insights into the Evolution of the Universe and of Life.”

Pope Benedict and Stinky Beaumont are on the same page:

Belief in God does not preclude belief in evolution.
Belief in evolution does not preclude belief in God.
Do not trust those who insist otherwise.
— Lao Stinky